Meet Tim "Flip" Hass, Server Support Engineer

 

Tim Hass is a Server Support Engineer at FastServers.Net. One of the few employees to earn a double major, Tim graduated from the University of Northern Iowa with a degree in both Physics and Russian. Like other techs FastServers.Net, Tim said science and engineering has always been interesting to him. Regarding Russian, he explained how a few hours [classes] here and there could eventually earn you a double degree. "A year of studying Russian, at the college level, does not give you the ability to really speak the language. It has a steep learning curve, so I decided to take a second year." After Tim's second year studying Russian, he was given an opportunity to study in Moscow for a summer. He said that summer in Moscow, plus a few more credit hours back at UNI, earned him a second degree in Russian.

Tim's summer in Moscow was spent studying the language and immersing himself in the Russian culture. "I was able to visit all the historical places such as The Kremlin, the former palace of kings; Red Square, the most famous city square in Moscow; Museum of History displaying documents, paintings, books, and objects of Russian history; Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics, a stylish museum where you can see real cosmonaut's equipment such as Yuri Gagarin's orange training suit and the Luna 3, one of the first spacecrafts used to explore the Moon; and my absolute favorite place to visit was an old monastery in Suzdal." He also told us the food was good, except the lemon Jell-O containing ground-up fish parts. This sounds like an episode of Fear Factor.

Tim goes by the nickname, "Flip," given to him by his college buddies at UNI. "Back in college there were three guys named Tim, all living next to each other. I used to wear a hat that had sunglasses on the bill that flip up while playing softball. One day while we were going out to the ball field to play, someone called me Flipper because I would flip up the sunglasses when a fly ball was coming my way." He said the name stuck and he eventually dropped the "per" to make it simple. And all this time we thought he earned the nickname for doing flips after he "six packed someone" on the volleyball court. Now we know the true story behind the nickname.

When Tim was attending UNI, he played on the men's volleyball team during its one year of existence. Even though he was a bench warmer, he said it helped his game immensely. "Playing at the college level increased my skills tremendously. I was able to practice with and against good players. And the coach taught us a lot about the game." Tim said he enjoyed traveling with the volleyball team and often reminisces about that experience when he's playing on the FastServers.Net volleyball team.

Tim's favorite television show of all time, M*A*S*H, represents the satirical side of his personality. "M*A*S*H is very funny and filled with dramatic events. The best part about the show is each episode has a message or a point to get across to the viewers." The award winning show lasted 11 years, totaling 251 episodes made, with the final episode as one of the most watched programs in television history. His favorite modern television shows are Stargate SG-1 and Battlestar Gallactica. "The two aforementioned television shows are exciting, interesting, and they utilize characters with personalities that have deep meaning." When Tim is not watching his favorite television shows, he listens to an old time radio series, Johnny Dollar, "the insurance investigator with the action-packed expense account." Tim said he likes the show because it is serialized. "The Johnny Dollar series leaves each episode with cliffhangers often involving suspense and mystery. Johnny is just irreverent to be cool without being over the top."

Tim enjoys the camaraderie the most at FastServers.Net. "The people I work with on a daily basis are top-notch, second to none, and are available to help you whenever you need it. Being surrounded by a team of people who care about what they do makes it easier to work hard for the company." He said he also likes the ability to learn new things and solve customer issues. Some of his daily tasks include answering tickets and rebooting servers.

Tim explained his thoughts on working the late shift. "I have always been a night person, so working the late night third shift works just fine for me. The only problem is that my sleep cycle is out of sync with family and friends. That makes it difficult to spend weekends with them." He has been with the company since the early days, back when it was called PowerSurge. Tim's one of the veterans of the company having been with us as long as any of our level-one and level-two technicians.